“Cody?” Harley came into the front door of their house. She’d gone into the office for a few hours earlier that day, because Cody insisted there was nothing she could do for Angel. She knew that was true and that work would get her mind off it for a while. She’d dropped Ian off at the teen center with a girl named Jessica who had been babysitting for them, kissed Cody good-bye, and headed into town with a two-enforcer escort. She’d only been there about an hour when she got a call from Tammy.

“Hey, Harley, where are you?”

“At the office, why?”

“I think Cody’s going to need you at home.”

“Okay…what’s going on now?” She was already worried about Kyle. They had history and although their breakup had been a bitter one, she hadn’t completely stopped caring about him. She was worried about Angel, who had become a great friend to her over the past year and a half, and now it seemed she’d have to worry about Cody too.

“I’m going to let him tell you. He’s okay, but he got some news today that might be hard for him to digest.” Harley didn’t have to ask how Tammy knew that. She knew that Gunner shared everything with his old lady. Tammy was born and bred in an MC and she knew the way it worked like the back of her hand. She’d refused, however, to be one of those old ladies who were left in the dark about things, and Gunner had no problem trusting his old lady enough to share with her. Harley had gotten in her car as soon as she ended the call and with her enforcer escorts, she’d gone back to the ranch.

“Cody, baby are you here?” She walked through the living room and into the kitchen. Cody was sitting at the table, staring at the wall. “Hey, baby, didn’t you hear me calling your name?” Cody took a few seconds to look at her. It was like he was trying to process what he was hearing and having a hard time. “What’s wrong, baby? What happened?”

Cody’s blue eyes were locked into hers and she could see the worry there. He struggled with things a lot because of the way he’d grown up. He’d been treated like a dog by his own father and then he’d killed the men that murdered his brother when he was sixteen. He spent the next ten years in prison, constantly looking over his shoulder. Then he came home to find out his best friend had fallen in love with his girl. He didn’t trust easily, but he did trust Harley and she was the only one he confided in when he was feeling anxious.

“I got a call from David a while ago. The guy that took Angel…his name is Josiah Miller.”

Harley pulled out the chair next to him and sat down. “Okay…he has the same last name as you. Do you know him?”

“No, at least I don’t think so. Harley…David seems to think this piece of shit is my brother.”

She was shaking her head. “That’s crazy—just because you have the same name?”

“No, there’s more.” Cody told her what David had told him, about Josiah’s old man and how he worshipped him, about how Sam Winters was his best friend, and most importantly, how his father was one of the Skulls, back in the day. Cody wanted to believe it was all a coincidence, he told her…but that would be foolish. It was way too much.

“So, say this guy is your brother…what’s his motivation for going after Angel?”

“To hurt Dax,” Cody said, flatly.

“Cody.” Harley slid out of her seat and got down on her knees in front of him. She took both of his hands in hers and said, “You know that even if this slimeball somehow has the same DNA as you, this is not your fault. You overcame that DNA, he didn’t. Dax loves you and he always will. Besides Angel and Susie, Dax loves you the most.”

“I just can’t believe that after all of these years, even after he’s dead and gone, that monster is still finding a way to fuck up my life.”

She squeezed his hands and said, “You beat him, Cody…if this is his bad juju, you’ll beat him again. You’re stronger than him. You always have been. If this crazy man that hurt Angel is your half-brother then he got all the bad genes and you’ll beat him too.”

Cody tugged on her hands and pulled her up in his lap. Harley wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her in tightly against his chest. “I love you so much. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’ll never have to figure that out.”

“I hope so, because I already want to destroy this son of a bitch just for what he did to Angel. If anyone ever hurt you…or Ian…”

“Shh, baby, I know.” Harley hugged him tightly and she firmly believed that together, they could beat anything.

* * *

“That bitch killed my old man!” Georgie was pacing back and forth, ranting. Josiah was sure that Georgie wasn’t just a dealer, he was a tweaker. He’d seen plenty of them in prison. The dudes whose women snuck meth in, carried in pouches in their nasty vaginas. It made him sick to his stomach to think about the men that would go ahead and use that shit. Georgie might not be getting his out of someone’s asshole or vagina, but Josiah found it just as repulsive. “I’m going to kill her, and her old man and that whole fucking club! I’m going to build a fucking bomb and I’m going to blow them up!” Josiah looked over at Georgie’s brother. Chuck was one of those guys that thought he’d made it. He thought he was out of the ghetto and into the big time. But then one day he got a taste of something and realized he couldn’t live without it. For Georgie, it was obviously drugs, but for Chuck, that something was money. He realized how much nicer life was with it than without it and like a drug, that only made him need more. When he couldn’t make enough to support the lifestyle he’d decided he wanted, he just started taking it. Then he got caught and the only place for him to go was home. Back to the place that had ruined him to begin with, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it out of his veins. Josiah knew that feeling. His cellmate used to watch him diligently working on his plan every night and he’d tell him to just walk away, start a new life. But his need for revenge was too strong. It was in his veins and it fueled everything inside of him. “I’m going to…”

“Enough!” Josiah snapped, loudly. “That’s enough, Georgie. Sit down.”

“Who the fuck are you to…?”

“Georgie!” Chuck barked at him. “Sit down and shut up!”

For some reason, Georgie still had enough respect for his older brother to take a seat and shut his mouth. Once it was finally silent and Josiah could think straight he said, “We’re going to make that slut pay for what she did to your dad, my Uncle Sam…but we’re not going to blow them up. Everything that we do to them is going to be up close and personal and they’re going to die with our faces as the last thing they ever laid eyes on. And hear me when I say this…Dax Marshall is the last to go, and he’s mine. When it’s time for him to die, I want him to look into my eyes and know I took everything and everyone away from him.”

“Why are you in charge?” Georgie asked.

“Because it’s my plan,” Josiah told him.

Chuck stood up and said, “I don’t care who’s in charge here, I’m done.”

“Sit down,” Josiah said.

“Fuck this. I just did this for the money I got paid that first night. I didn’t sign up for life.” He turned and started for the door. In one swift move, Josiah grabbed him from behind with his big arm around the other man’s neck and he twisted. He heard the satisfying snap and then he heard Georgie scream like a girl and run for the door. He dropped Chuck onto the floor and jumped over him in time to grab Georgie. He’d hoped for help, bringing Dax and his club to its knees, but he wasn’t going to get it from these fools. Georgie was screaming and wailing and begging for his life. Josiah held onto him with one arm and slid his knife out of his pocket. When he pressed it to Georgie’s throat the idiot was able to let out one last blood-curdling scream before Josiah pulled it all the way across and silenced him…forever. He dropped him quickly before the blood saturated his clothes. It was on his hands and arms, but that was an easy enough fix. Josiah stepped over Chuck and went to the sink in the fifth-wheel trailer they’d been hiding out in. He washed the blood off his hands and the knife and then he stuck the knife down in his pocket. On his way back to the door he stopped and took Chuck’s wallet out of his pocket and then he slid his hand down in the front pocket of Georgie’s jeans. When he pulled out a handful of condoms, his stomach rolled. Who in their right fucking mind would have sex with this brainless fool? He dropped them to the floor and checked the other pocket. He found what he was looking for there…the roll of bills that the desperate junkies had paid him for a taste of something that would take them out of the ghetto and make them feel important for sixty minutes of their pathetic lives at a time. It was disgusting, but he would put the money to good use. He was going to make his old man proud…or die trying.